Denver Post: An Easy Way to Improve Colorado’s Economy

[ Thanks to WindBourne for this link. ]

“It seems safe to assume that there’s at least one state
computer per state employee, and that the computers have an average
life cycle of three years, so the state probably purchases about
20,000 new computers every year. It also seems safe to assume that
at least 95 percent of these come with a Microsoft operating system
and that at least half of them come with Microsoft applications
like Works, Word and Office.

“So it would appear that the average state computer might have
about $200 worth of Microsoft software. Run that across 20,000 new
computers a year, and that’s $4 million a year that leaves our
state to enrich people in the state of Washington.

“If the state just switched to Linux (or free BSD, for that
matter), most of that money would stay here. Further, with the
state setting the example, many local governments (162,000
employees in 1999) would doubtless follow suit…”

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